Lorex Technology Inc. of Markham, Ont. is shipping a video surveillance system that doubles as an electronic picture frame and office PC.
The All-in-One Professional Digital Surveillance Recording System, which costs US$2,399, includes a 20.1-inch monitor, digital recorder, 320 GB hard drive and four cameras.
“You can connect any PC or laptop to it and it will double as a PC monitor, so you can use it as your PC monitor while recording in the background,” said Gilad Epstein, director of product management for Lorex.
“You can see what’s happening in your store while you’re working on your computer.” He added it could be used by companies wanting to run a promotional video or advertise something.
The standard version comes with a 320- GB hard drive, which can be swapped for a drive of higher capacity, Epstein said.
Users can also backup archived video over the network through File Transfer Protocol. “You can set a schedule and archive the data to a network location, whether on your local area network or even a remote location over the Internet,” he said. “All you have to do is specify the location and, at a certain time, (for example) 7 at night, the system will offload the information according to the settings that you’ve put into the system.”
Users can also purchase extra cameras with frequency-hopping wireless connections.
The cameras are capable of night vision and each comes with a 100-foot cable. The daytime resolution is 480 TV lines, and it has 24 infrared LEDs to provide surveillance at night of distances up to 15 metres. The camera cable provides both video transmission and power.
The screen can display digital pictures from USB flash drives.
The monitor has USB ports so you can save video clips to your USB drive. It also comes with a ten-foot Ethernet cable so you can connect to your network through a router. It has an extra port for component video so you can attach it to a DVD player or satellite feed and run promotional videos.